What is the E-Cat? Looking for a Clear, Concise Definition.

It occurred to me today that there could well be people who are hearing about the E-Cat for the first time who have little or no understanding of what the E-Cat actually is. I’d like to be able to provide a simple but accurate description that a non-expert would be able to easily understand.

Here’s my first attempt:

“E-Cat is an abbreviation of the term “energy catalyzer” and is an invention of Italian engineer Andrea Rossi. The E-Cat is a device that produces a nuclear reaction through a process in which hydrogen is heated and combined with a nickel powder and an undisclosed catalyst inside a reaction chamber. In this process the nucleus of the hydrogen, which is the proton, penetrates the nickel nucleus and in doing so becomes copper, and releases a large amount of energy. The energy produced by the nuclear reaction is used to heat water and the output of the E-Cat is steam. Lead is used as a shield to prevent the release of harmful radiation during the reaction, and when the reaction is complete there is no radioactive waste.”

I would be grateful to anyone who could provide suggestions on how this could be improved. I am obviously not approaching this from a skeptical point of view — I am taking Rossi and Focardi at their word about the device.